story: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- In 1989, the warnings were dire. The Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing," critics and columnists said, would provoke violence and disrupt race relations. 
  
  Spike Lee: "I wanted to do a film that would try to show what was happening at the time." 
  
  "This movie is dynamite under every seat," wrote Newsweek's Jack Kroll. 
  
  Other commentators believed the film would harm the candidacy of David Dinkins, an African-American who was running for mayor of New York. It might even spark riots at movie theaters, they thought. 
  
  Instead, what the film provoked was ... talk. There were no riots. Dinkins was elected. "Do the Right Thing" had a successful run at the box office -- if not as successful as Lee and his supporters hoped -- and was nominated for two Academy Awards. 
  
  Twenty years later, the film still maintains a hold on the imagination. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it as one of the 100 best American films. Roger Ebert, who has written he cried when he first saw the film at the Cannes Film Festival, still considers the film a wonder: "Spike Lee had done an almost impossible thing. He'd made a movie about race in America that empathized with all the participants," he wrote in 2001. 
  
  So what is the thing about "Do the Right Thing?" Watch Spike Lee describe things in his own words » 
  
  Part of its staying power is in its boldness, both in look and action. Lee's first two films, "She's Gotta Have It" (1986) and "School Daze" (1988), had marked him as a rising young filmmaker. But it was "Do the Right Thing," made when Lee was just 32, that showcased his confidence, from the deliberately striking color scheme (bright reds and oranges that make a hot day seem even hotter) to its heightened -- sometimes stagy -- atmosphere, to its grim, documentary-style riot climax. 
questions: Who created Do the Right Thing?
questions: When?
questions: Why were newspaper writers concerned?
questions: Were they right?
questions: Was the movie successful?
questions: Was it nominated for any awards?
questions: Which one?
questions: Who called the film a wonder?
questions: When did he see it first?
questions: What over movies did Lee make?
questions: How old was he when he made Do the Right Thing?
questions: Who was campaigning for mayor?
questions: Of what city?
questions: What group ranked it as one of the best?
questions: When?
questions: Did Ebert laugh when he saw it?
answers: Spike Lee
answers: The Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing
answers: 1989
answers:  In 1989
answers: they said it would provoke violence and disrupt race relations
answers: critics and columnists said, would provoke violence and disrupt race relations
answers: no
answers: Instead, what the film provoked was ... talk
answers: yes
answers: Do the Right Thing" had a successful run at the box office
answers: yes
answers: and was nominated for two Academy Awards. 
answers: two Academy Awards.
answers: and was nominated for two Academy Awards. 
  
answers: Roger Ebert
answers: Roger Ebert, who has written he cried when he first saw the film at the Cannes Film Festival, still considers the film a wonder
answers: at the Cannes Film Festival
answers: he first saw the film at the Cannes Film Festival,
answers: "She's Gotta Have It" and "School Daze"
answers: Lee's first two films, "She's Gotta Have It" (1986) and "School Daze" (1988),
answers: 32
answers: made when Lee was just 32
answers: David Dinkins
answers: David Dinkins, an African-American who was running for mayor of New York
answers: New York
answers: mayor of New York
answers: the American Film Institute
answers: the American Film Institute ranked it as one of the 100 best
answers: In 2007
answers: In 2007
answers: no
answers: who has written he cried when he first saw the film